Another Christmas expedition with junior, this time to look the only graphite mine of any size in the UK.
We’d been round the rather underwhelming pencil museum in Keswick a while ago and also seen the empty pencil factory next door, now being renovated.
This time we carried on south to Seathwaite, apparently the wettest place in Britain, to see where the pencil lead came from.
History. Plenty online e.g.
historicengland.org.uk
heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk
Potted version: Graphite (aka plumbago, black lead, wad) was originally used for drawing on sheep but later became valuable as a lubricant and for making temperature-resistant moulds for casting cannon and musket balls.
Its high price resulted in guard huts being built near the mine entrances, manned by men with blunderbusses.
The black stuff finally ran out in the late 1800s and graphite is now imported.
As an aside, there’s been renewed interest in graphite in the form of graphene, its monolayer version, which has unique material properties
The area is owned by the National Trust, and the mine is currently used as a playground by an outdoors adventure company.
Pictures are a mixture of phone and camera.
Roadside view of the waste tips up the side of the valley.
Remains of a guard hut.
The first hole we found, which goes straight in for maybe 75 yards with a couple of short side passages.
Not quite the end.
A crawl through a small gap leads to a shower chamber.
So back out…
…and up to the next hole.
A tunnel with rails is visible immediately inside….
…but on the wrong side of a drop about 10 yards.
You could climb around easily enough, but it was a bit slippery so we reluctantly gave that a miss.
On up the hill - the opening on the right soon leads to large drop…
…but the one on left turns into a little network of tunnels, with tubes (worked out graphite veins) going up and down.
Looking up (or possibly down, I forget) one of the tubes.
Handy ropes for climbing around.
Pretty colours in this place, with pink gunk that stains like bronzer.
And back out for the view.
We only did the easy walk-in bits - a caving map shows loads more to explore if you go equipped to do a little climbing.
We’d been round the rather underwhelming pencil museum in Keswick a while ago and also seen the empty pencil factory next door, now being renovated.
This time we carried on south to Seathwaite, apparently the wettest place in Britain, to see where the pencil lead came from.
History. Plenty online e.g.
Borrowdale graphite mines and associated grinding mill, 660m north west of Seathwaite, Borrowdale - 1019941 | Historic England
List entry 1019941. Grade Not applicable to this List entry. Scheduled Monument: Borrowdale Graphite Mines And Associated Grinding Mill, 660M North West Of Seathwaite. May include summary, reasons for designation and history.
MNA119961 | National Trust Heritage Records
Seathwaite Wad mines are situated on Seathwaite Farm, it is considered extraction of graphite started in 1850 and ended in 1865.
heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk
Potted version: Graphite (aka plumbago, black lead, wad) was originally used for drawing on sheep but later became valuable as a lubricant and for making temperature-resistant moulds for casting cannon and musket balls.
Its high price resulted in guard huts being built near the mine entrances, manned by men with blunderbusses.
The black stuff finally ran out in the late 1800s and graphite is now imported.
As an aside, there’s been renewed interest in graphite in the form of graphene, its monolayer version, which has unique material properties
The area is owned by the National Trust, and the mine is currently used as a playground by an outdoors adventure company.
Pictures are a mixture of phone and camera.
Roadside view of the waste tips up the side of the valley.
Remains of a guard hut.
The first hole we found, which goes straight in for maybe 75 yards with a couple of short side passages.
Not quite the end.
A crawl through a small gap leads to a shower chamber.
So back out…
…and up to the next hole.
A tunnel with rails is visible immediately inside….
…but on the wrong side of a drop about 10 yards.
You could climb around easily enough, but it was a bit slippery so we reluctantly gave that a miss.
On up the hill - the opening on the right soon leads to large drop…
…but the one on left turns into a little network of tunnels, with tubes (worked out graphite veins) going up and down.
Looking up (or possibly down, I forget) one of the tubes.
Handy ropes for climbing around.
Pretty colours in this place, with pink gunk that stains like bronzer.
And back out for the view.
We only did the easy walk-in bits - a caving map shows loads more to explore if you go equipped to do a little climbing.
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